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EXAMPLE: Pinned Programs on the Start Menu in Windows 7NOTE:You will notice that these pinned items are only at the of the Start Menu above the separator line. The items below the line are recent programs instead, and are not included in the backup.

OPTION ONE

To Backup Pinned Items on the Start Menu in Windows 7

1. Click on the Download buttom below to download the .bat file below, then run it.

Backup-Pinned_StartMenu_Items.bat

2. If prompted, click on Run. NOTE:If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

3. You will now notice your screen flicker as explorer is restarted.

4. You will now have a Start-Menu-Pinned-Items-Backup folder on your desktop that is the backup of your pinned taskbar items.

5. Move this folder to where you like for safe keeping.NOTE:Do not rename this folder since it must remain the exact same name to be able to use it in OPTION TWO below to restore your pinned Start Menu items with.

1. If you have not already, make sure that any 3rd party programs that were pinned to your Start Menu when the backup was created in OPTION ONE are still installed to the same location first.NOTE:Since the pinned Start Menu items are just shortcuts that point to the program, the programs must still be at the same location when the backup was created before restoring the pinnedStart Menu items.

2. Move or copy the Start-Menu-Pinned-Items-Backup folder created from OPTION ONE above to your desktop.

3. Click on the Download buttom below to download the .bat file below, then run it.

Restore-Pinned_StartMenu_Items.bat

4. If prompted, click on Run. NOTE:If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

Just a quick note, I believe I found a minor error in the batch files. If the user profile name has a space in it, the registry key export will fail. The %userprofile% variable needs to have quotes around it to work in that instance.

Is it possible to use either (or both) your utilities when I find my StartMenu pinned items list has spontaneously vanished? There are no longer any programs shown at all, and I haven't previously backed it up.

The hidden StartMenu folder for my user is still there and reflects how StartMenu looked until this morning, but the actual StartMenu is now empty. If I back it up with your first utility presumably it will back up the now empty StartMenu, no? I need to restore as per the contents of the hidden folder, but I'm not sure your utilities will do this (and I don't want to lose this list!)

Pinned items on the Start Menu are referenced in both the registry and the hidden Start Menu folder. Since the links are still in your Start Menu folder, it appears that something happened to the registry location, and broke them leaving the Start Menu pin to area blank.

Yeah, it wouldn't do any good to back up your pin to area now since it'll be the same broken state.

About all you can do is to make note of the items you want to pin to Start in your Start Menu folder, reset the Start menu pin to area, and manually pin them again.

Thanks a million for you speedy reply. I was afraid you'd say that! I was hoping there might be a straightforward way to restore the registry entry and put it all back together again. The weird thing is, I hadn't even logged off overnight, only slept the machine, so whatever caused it happened as part of that sleep/wake process. Ah well, probably half the stuff on there I no longer used anyway, so maybe I needed the nudge to tidy it up. I may take a stroll thru the events logs and see what I can find that might explain what happened.

Start Menu - Backup and Restore Pinned Items in Windows 7

Taskbar - Backup and Restore Pinned Items in Windows 7How to Back Up and Restore Pinned Taskbar Items in Windows 7
This will show you how to back up and restore your pinned taskbar items (program icons) automatically with one click in Windows 7.
This can be handy if you do not want to have to manually pin and restore your currently pinned...

Tutorials

pinned items vanished on start menuThe functionality is not disabled, I can pin new items, but existing items disappeared, they vanished after updating nvidia display drivers and rebooting.
If I repin the same items they appear but with (2) appended to the name indicating they a duplicate pin.
Any ideas?

General Discussion

Manipulation of items pinned to Start MenuI want to be able to backup, and to quickly restore, the items I have pinned to the Start Menu after I restore an image to my c: drive, but it's escaping me how to do it.
Windows stores the shortcuts here:
C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User...

Customization

What items can be pinned to start menu?I know about right clicking on program shortcuts and then selecting "pin to start menu" option but can one pin things like documents folder, temp folder on hard drive, control panel, windows update etc?
thanx
TC